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Dynamic Collisions: Directorial Montage in the Devised Work Of DYNAMIC COLLISIONS: DIRECTORIAL MONTAGE IN THE DEVISED WORK OF ANNE BOGART A Thesis by ALESA MCGREGOR Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University-Commerce in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2014 DYNAMIC COLLISIONS: DIRECTORIAL MONTAGE IN THE DEVISED WORK OF ANNE BOGART A Thesis by ALESA MCGREGOR Approved by: Advisor: Carrie Klypchak Committee: Gerald Duchovnay Michael Knight, Jr. Head of Department: Michael Knight, Jr. Dean of the College: Salvatore Attardo Dean of Graduate Studies: Arlene Horne iii ABSTRACT DYNAMIC COLLISIONS: DIRECTORIAL MONTAGE IN THE DEVISED WORK OF ANNE BOGART Alesa McGregor, MA Texas A&M University-Commerce, 2014 Advisor: Carrie Klypchak, PhD From its inception, early film assumed a predominantly theatrical form. However, as film progressed, both film and theatre practitioners began working to distinguish the two mediums. Yet, the relationship between film and theatre persists as cinematic techniques currently also influence the theatrical stage. Though often differentiated as two distinctly separate mediums in scholarship, it proves important to consider the ongoing dialogue that occurs between the forms. This thesis explores the relationship of theatre and film via a specific investigation of how directorial montage manifests in contemporary devised theatre. Relying on data gleaned from a case study offering a specific set of findings, this thesis examines the devising processes of famed contemporary theatre director Anne Bogart and analyzes the resulting directorial montage in a 2014 presentation of the devised production, A Rite. Through the critical framework of montage theory, as articulated by filmmaker and theorist Sergei Eisenstein, who is most often associated with directorial montage, the analysis highlights and interrogates the presence of metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal, intellectual, and vertical montage in A Rite. iv While during his lifetime Eisenstein did not believe theatre capable of fully realizing his standards of montage, the major implications of the current study suggest that devised theatre can effectively offer all of Eisenstein’s concepts of montage which manifest in a number of dynamic ways. The collected data indicates that theatrical productions can offer multiple montage phases simultaneously. As well, repetition of actions in a production can serve as an overarching form of montage for the whole of the live performance. Elements of montage in a devised production can also be significantly enhanced through the physical exactitude and abilities of the performers via rigorous physical training practices. As evidenced in A Rite, these practices allow devised theatre to ultimately achieve intellectual montage, which Eisenstein considered the highest form of montage. The intellectual montage offers audiences further insight into the often complex and multi-layered meanings of devised performances. With these conclusions regarding directorial montage, this study provides a linkage between theatre and film, thereby broadening and enhancing the understanding of the current relationship between the two mediums. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank the members of my thesis committee, Dr. Gerald Duchovnay and Mr. Michael Knight, Jr., for their support of this project. I would also like to acknowledge my advisor, Dr. Carrie Klypchak, who has been an integral part of this process. Her vast patience, seemingly endless library, and constant inspiration has continually encouraged me to explore this beautiful art. Thank you for always reminding me that “I am enough.” I must also thank Murray Parks, my first director, who put me on the stage thirteen years ago. Without his early encouragement, I might have never looked at theatre as more than an exciting game of dress-up. I would also like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank my family for their support and encouragement as I run passionately after this dream called theatre. I owe a debt of gratitude to my mom for introducing me to this passion, though she may have instantly regretted her choice to bring an eight-year-old to a community theatre rehearsal, to my brother for sitting through endless performances and never complaining aloud, to my sister who still somehow thinks I am good at everything, and to my dad who never doubted me for a second. I would not be who I am today without your love and encouragement. Finally, to my “theatre family” which I have learned to hold closer over the years: thank you for being my home away from home and inspiring me along the way. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 Method ................................................................................................................... 3 Significance of the Study ....................................................................................... 9 Outline of the Study ............................................................................................. 10 2. LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 11 3. COMPOSING THE COLLISION: ANNE BOGART AND HER DEVISING TECHNIQUES ...................................... 26 4. ANALYZING THE COLLISION: DIRECTORIAL MONTAGE IN A RITE ........ 40 5. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 63 Implications of the Study .................................................................................... 63 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research ........................... 71 The Broad Scope ................................................................................................. 73 6. WORKS CITED ......................................................................................................... 74 7. VITA ............................................................................................................................ 81 1 Chapter I INTRODUCTION From the development of the first films in the late 1880s, film has been influenced by the theatre. Despite dozens of one-reel documentary motion pictures at the inception of film technology, silent films began to exhibit a narrative structure borrowed from theatrical tradition when “as early as 1897, Georges Méliès filmed scenes from Parisian stage comedies; by 1900 Sarah Bernhardt was before cameras starring in short scenes from Hamlet [and] in America, theatre pieces were filmed by Adolph Zukor when he founded Famous Players” which would eventually be renamed Paramount Pictures (Brown xiii). Many early filmmakers, such as D.W. Griffith (1875-1948) who is often referred to as “the father of film technique,” (Simmon 2) came from theatre backgrounds. In his experimentation with various film techniques, though, Griffith was able to distinguish his cinematic work from the theatrical stage through the use of editing, multiple-location shooting, intercuts, close-ups and long-shots (17-18). As technology developed, filmmakers further separated themselves from the theatre with the incorporation of advanced editing, producing special effects that the theatre could not. Editing led to the use and refinement of the cinematic montage technique as described in depth by Soviet filmmaker and theorist Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) as early as 1924, though his works were not translated into English until 1942. Not working in isolation, Eisenstein developed his theories of montage in response to the work of Russian contemporaries, most notably Lev Kuleshov (1899-1970) of the famed Kuleshov Workshop and his student Vsevolod Pudovkin (1893-1953) and Dziga Vertov (1896-1954) who brought a form of montage to documentary-style filmmaking (Taylor 22). Across his multiple works, Eisenstein reviews, 2 critiques, and challenges the concepts of montage and filmmaking utilized by these and others working in film at the time in an effort to polish his own developing theories. At its most basic level, Eisenstein’s montage theory derives from the collision of two shots that are independent of one another (Eisenstein, The Eisenstein Reader 94). In film, then, this collision is manipulated by a film director and editor as the two piece together the independent shots to create something new, or, as Eisenstein categorizes this interaction, “dynamic” (94). Film theorist Susan Sontag argues: The history of cinema is often treated as the history of its emancipation from theatrical models. First of all from theatrical “frontality” (the unmoving camera reproducing the situation of the spectator of a play fixed in his seat), then from theatrical acting (gestures needlessly stylized, exaggerated-needlessly, because now the actor could be seen “close up”), then from theatrical furnishings (unnecessary "distancing" of the audience's emotions, disregarding the opportunity to immerse the audience in reality). Movies are regarded as advancing from theatrical stasis to cinematic fluidity. (24) This view puts the two mediums at odds, suggesting that film and theatre must separate in order to distinguish one form from the other. However, as film has become a more prevalent medium in contemporary society, the theatre “has also been influenced and changed by cinema . consciously or not” (Ebrahimian 2-3). This reversal of roles breaks the barrier of distinction in order to allow for a sort of ongoing conversation as each form
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